Aerospace

2015

Why Big Data and the

Internet of Things hold
the key to the future of
aerospace
The advent of big data and the Internet of Thing (IoT) has transformed business and
consumer sectors across the world. Facebook has over 1.4 billion subscribers generating
in excess of 600 terabyte1 of data every day. But the impact on data heavy sectors like
aerospace has been even more revolutionary.
The figures already dwarf those found in the
consumer space, both in terms of the volume and
the impact that they’re having across the industry.
For example, Bombardier’s CSeries jetliner carries
Pratt & Whitney’s Geared Turbo Fan (GTF) engine
- an engine that comes with 5000 sensors and
that can generate up to 10 GB of data per second.
A single twin engine aircraft with an average of 12
hours flight-time can produce 844 TB of data. With
an order book of over 3500 GTF engines, Pratt
could potentially download zeta bytes of data,
once all their engines are in the field.
These scales, combined with the level of storage
and computing infrastructure required to handle
such volumes, are mind blowing. It seems there-
fore, that the data generated by the aerospace
industry alone could soon surpass the magnitude
of the consumer internet.
For the GTF engine, it uses this incredibly valuable
information to build artificial intelligence and pre-
dict the demands of the engine in order to adjust
thrust levels. As a result, GTF engines are demon-
strating a reduction in fuel consumption by 10% to
15%, alongside impressive performance improve-
ments in engine noise and emissions.
Beyond this, big data and the IoT are having a
huge impact on the industry through the advent
of predictive maintenance. These developments
are driving massive reductions in costly aircraft
on ground time (AOG), as well as transforming the
passenger experience, creating truly connected
aircrafts as a result.
Predictive maintenance
IoT is having a growing influence over the main-
tenance side of the aerospace industry. This is
important because of the resultant reduction in
AOG. Every second of every minute that a plane
is not in the air, it loses money; with Airbus China2
recently estimating the daily cost of a grounded
A380 Airbus to be $1,250,000. With operators un-
der pressure to streamline their costs and increase
their revenues3, aircraft maintenance procedures
play a fundamental role in reducing this.
Through sensors, IoT helps airlines collect and
subsequently translate vast volumes of data into
meaningful business information that can then
be applied to determine the status and perform-
ance of particular systems and subsystems within
an aircraft. Sensors are now being distributed
throughout the aircraft, for example, monitoring
key performance parameters such as fuel burn in
the engine. When the flight has landed, this
information can be downloaded and analysed
by the ground staff, enabling appropriate action
to be taken to correct any minor faults or make
alterations and get the aircraft back in service as
soon as possible. Five years ago, this post-flight
analysis used to take an engineer up to 4 days to
process data from one engine. Whereas now there
are solutions available that are providing useful
information within minutes of a plane landing.
Though the real-time health monitoring is limited
to some of the new generation aircraft, due to
bandwidth limitations, the opportunities will be
endless once we have the bandwidth capabilit-
ies required to support this activity. The current
bandwidth for in-flight data transfer is around
400 kbps and the next planned upgrade is up to
10 mbps. Faster speeds yet will enable increas-
ing amounts of critical performance data to be
shipped to the ground for real-time assessment.
Ground staff having access to a constant stream of
information could be a reality in around five years’
time, giving them continual and complete visibility
of the aircraft’s performance. If, for example, one
of the engine vitals fails mid-air, a standby system
would kick in and run all of the necessary functions
to enable it to complete its journey safely. An alert
would then be sent to the ground staff, who could
use the real-time information to determine the
cause of the failure, before engaging the neces-
sary personnel and sourcing the components
required to get the aircraft back up and running
as soon as it lands. Getting all of this preparation
done while the aircraft is still in flight would help
the airline to vastly reduce the chance of it be-
ing placed in AOG, therefore helping it to reduce
maintenance costs and also keep passengers
happy.
Connecting the passenger to the
aircraft
Passengers are also driving another major trend
in the use of big data and IoT in aerospace. The
latest smartphones, tablets and wearable devices
are in the pockets of every passenger and there is
an expectation to be able to use them at 39,000
feet, just as we do in our living rooms. Airlines are
responding with investment in improving in-flight
Wi-Fi and the development of custom-built airline
apps to allow passengers to interact with the plane
and inflight systems from their own device. There
are multiple functionalities possible, including the
ability to download movies to smartphones and
tablets, adjust ambience settings, order food and
drink or call for attention.
This increased engagement with the plane pro- Authors
duces data – such as information on the movies
that are being downloaded, the food that is being
ordered, and when, by whom and in what quantity. Rupak Ghosh
With the right systems in place, airlines can ensure Vice President, Cyient
that they are able to extrapolate insight from this
data to improve the passenger experience. This Bhoopathi Rapolu
could be done through promotions on favourite Head of Analytics EMEA, Cyient
food items for example, or recommendations on
similar films.
Securing the future of IoT References
Of course, with every innovation comes a new risk. 1
http://www.fin24.com/Tech/News/Facebook-to-
Inflight Wi-Fi can leave planes vulnerable to hack- show-highlights-from-your-past-20150325
ing and the US Government Accountability Office4
has repeatedly tried to bring this to the FAA’s 2
http://www.delivered.dhl.com/en/articles/
attention as a word of caution during its modern- 2014/02/aircraft-on-ground.html
isation plans.
3
http://www.strategyand.pwc.com/
A security researcher recently claimed to have
5
perspectives/2015-aviation-trends
taken control of a commercial airliner from his seat
on the aircraft, simply through hacking the enter- 4
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/
tainment system. While there is reason to doubt 2015/apr/15/wi-fi-on-planes-in-flight-
the voracity of his claim, this is nonetheless a stark hacking-us-government
reminder of the challenges we have to address in
this area. But the vulnerabilities are not confined 5
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-
to the aircraft cabin; the company systems on 3084856/Security-researcher-admits-FBI-
the ground remain at risk. This recently became a hacked-commercial-airline-s-entertainment-
reality6 when ten planes were grounded in Poland took-control-plane-making-climb-fly-
following a major hacking attack that jammed sideways.html
the carrier systems. The industry needs to come
together to find new solutions and increases in 6
http://www.cnbc.com/id/102776924
regulations. Updates to security, network and data
safety are crucial if there are to be further ad-
vancements in big data and IoT.
Security concerns aside, there has never been a
more exciting time to be working in the aerospace
industry. Soon, thousands of sensors will be
embedded in each aircraft, allowing data to be
streamed down to the ground in real-time. And
who knows, in time, this could drive the famous
black box to simply become a backup device! The
potential benefits include reduced AOG from
predictive maintenance as well as innovation in
the passenger inflight experience, making the
truly connected aircraft a very real and present
possibility.
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Published July 2015